Workers at the Nissan assembly plant in Smyrna check the finish of vehicles during the painting process at the new energy-efficient paint facility, which is part of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Better Buildings, Better Plants Challenge. / Sanford Myers / The TennesseanSMYRNA – Nissan’s new energy-efficient paint plant, attached to its vehicle assembly facility here, cost the automaker $200 million and will reduce energy use by 30 percent compared with the 30-year-old paint shop it replaced.
With the typical auto assembly plant’s paint shop accounting for 70 percent of its energy usage, that could be a significant savings, the company said.
Nissan showed off the new paint plant last week to a key U.S. Department of Energy official, emphasizing the facility’s “quality, efficiency and environmental impacts.”